What next?
by Ness-cessity
Summary: My take on what happend to Harry, Ron and Hermione after the penultimate chapter of DH. contains spoilers for DH. Please read and review
1. Chapter 1

-1**Disclaimer; I do not own Harry Potter or any other of J K Rowlings works.**

Harry woke up with a feeling of optimism he hadn't felt since he was 11. It was over, Voldemort was dead and he could carry on with whatever normal 17 year old wizards did, although what that was he hadn't the foggiest. What should he do now? He hadn't a N.E.W.T to his name, so his chance of getting a job looked minimal and the Auror office would hardly accept him for training with only his O.W.L.S. The only option that looked feasible was working with Fred and George at Weasley's Wizarding wheezes. Oh no, Fred… Just then, everything that had happened flooded back to him and his world came crashing down. Fred had died in the fight, so had Tonks and Lupin, leaving Teddy an orphan, everyone that had died. The grief was so strong he nearly cried out but instead he let silent tears fall as he looked to his left and saw Ginny sharing his bed, so peaceful in sleep, forgetting for a moment, the terrible fate that befell her brother and beyond her Hermione and Ron, two better friends than anyone could hope for. Last night they had preferred to share the boy's dorm, rather than be apart, Goodness only knows what Dean or Neville would have thought had they come up.

Just then Ginny started to stir, quickly followed by Ron and Hermione. Harry hurriedly wiped away the tears that were threatening to betray him and the four just looked at each other, neither knowing what to say. Friends had died, family had perished and each of them knew that although thing's were about to improve, some of the people they most wanted to share it with were gone forever.

Ron was the first to speak, or rather his stomach was.

"I guess that the signal to go down to the Great Hall." Harry said in reply

Ginny merely rolled her eyes, if one thing could be counted on it was Ron's stomach.

They entered the Great Hall together, secretly glad that everyone had been moved from last night, Professor McGonagall told them that the injured had been taken to the now expanded hospital wing and the less fortunate were in the Room of Requirement. Ron and Ginny set of to the latter in search of their parents and Harry and Hermione, slowly towards the Gryffindor table. All banners had been removed from the halls walls and ceilings, although it didn't seem to alter the seating arrangements, there were only about six people in the hall including them. Harry just stared into space, trying to work his brain round all that had happened.

"Harry….Hermione?"

It was Neville.

"Are you OK? I… I mean you all just disappeared last night, I just want to make sure you're alright." He said

Before Harry had a chance to reply Hermione said, "We're fine, thank you. We just had to leave last night. Where is everyone?"

Neville nodded his understanding at her statement before replying, " Well some people left and went to Hogsmede and some are with their friends and family in either the hospital wing or the Room of Requirement but a lot are just sleeping in classrooms or just walking through the school in a daze. I have to go, I told Professor Flitwick I'd help clear up some of the corridors"

"OK Neville," said Hermione "We'll be around in a bit to help"

At this Neville took off, leaving Hermione and Harry alone.

**- So my first ever fan fic, what do you think? There's defiantly more to come so please read and review**


	2. Chapter 2

-1**A/N - I know the last chapter was short and this one isn't much longer but bear with me, I'm still getting the hang of this and Ashley01fan, thanks for the review.**

Hermione turned to Harry, "Don't you think we should…"

"Yeah, you're right, let's go." Harry stood up, shook his head and he and Hermione went in search of the charms Professor.

The rest of the day was spent repairing broken windows and clearing away any evidence of the destruction that took place mere hours ago

Harry didn't see Ron or Ginny at all until Professor McGonagall called everybody into the great hall at seven o'clock.

"I suppose you all know the reason I've called you here. We have a problem of how to transfer those we have lost home, or to wherever their loved ones wish them to be. In regards to the students we have lost, their parents have been notified and they will be arriving in Hogsmede at anytime. I would like to tell to tell you that the Hogwarts Express will be leaving at 9am tomorrow for anyone that wants to use it and for the first time in history, it will stop along the way at Muggle train stations. For those wishing to apparate home, be advised that the enchantments on the castle have been lifted and it is now possible to do so from within the grounds. If anyone wishes to see me this evening, I will be in the Headmasters study."

As McGonagall stepped from the podium Mrs Weasley approached Harry and Hermione, flanked by Ron and Ginny.

"Harry, Hermione, we're taking Fred home now. Ron and Ginny have said the want to stay here and help but the castle to rights but they'll be back in time for…..Anyway, I want you to know you're welcome at our home as soon as you wish to return, You too Hermione, it will take a lot of energy to return your parents to their former lives and I think you need a rest before you try it." Hermione went to protest but Mrs Weasley silenced her with a wave of her hand. "I know you want nothing more than to go there right now but to try and lift any enchantment or reverse a memory charm in your state would probably do more harm than good and if I know you, you did it so no one but the caster can reverse it. Am I right?" she asked

"Yeah." muttered Hermione

"There you are then," said Mrs Weasley. "Now, I'll see you all in a few day's, but I hope sooner." Then she hugged each of them tight enough to empty their lungs and walked back to a stoic Mr Weasley and a devastated George. Then with a faint pop they were gone.

Ginny was the first to move after her mother left. Grasping Harry, she let her tears soak his robes. He knew she'd been holding this in all day, so without a word he gently eased her from his shoulder and led her up to the Gryffindor common room. Harry tried to move her towards the girls dormitory stairs but she just clung tighter to him. Instead he simply steered her towards the sofa in front of the fire. With Ginny on his lap and a blanket covering them both, he just let her cry whilst he stroked her hair until they both fell asleep.

The next morning, Harry again woke before Ginny but not before Ron and Hermione as he looked over in time to see them both coming through the portrait hole.

"They're serving breakfast," whispered Ron

"Thanks," replied Harry, gently removing Ginny form his lap and sitting up.

"Are there many left in the castle?" He asked Hermione

"Not really," she said "just the professors, the Order, some of the D.A and a few parents and students. Most people apparate home last night. How's Ginny?"

"I'm fine, Hermione" said Ginny sitting up, "at least I'm better after that sleep. What should we do now?" She asked no one in particular

"Go home I guess," answered Ron. "It will be Fred's funeral in a couple of days." Ginny looked as if she might start crying again but shook herself out of it.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. We'd better pack our trunks. Harry, Hermione you're coming with us aren't you?" she asked beseechingly.

"Of course we are!" They replied in unison, taken aback by her question

"We wouldn't think of being anywhere else." Harry said

The afternoon was spent gathering their belongings and saying goodbye to friends, Professors and the Order, most of which they'd see at Fred's funeral. Then they disapparated from Hogwarts for what would probably be their last time.

**A/N - You know the drill, review please **


	3. Chapter 3

-1**A/N - Hi guys, I know it's been ages since I updated but with Christmas and everything I seem to have been stuck at work 25 hours a day. Here it is anyway.**

**This chapter focuses on the funerals. I know it's gonna be pretty depressing (if my writings worth it's salt) but from where I picked up in the story, it can't be avoided but I am doing them all in this chapter so we can move on to happier things.**

**Thanks for the reviews, everything's been noted and I do have a vague idea about what's gonna happen but I'm mainly playing this by ear with info from the Harry Potter Wiki, (I'm trying to keep it in the ball park of JK's ideas) so feel free to let me know what you want to read and any plot ideas you've got. **

In the week it took to prepare for Fred's funeral, Harry, Ron and Hermione attended Colin Creavey's, you could hardly call them friends but Harry felt a strong need to be there as blamed himself for Colin's death. Then there was Severus Snape's. Neither Ron nor Hermione could understand why he wanted to go, never mind alone and Harry could no more make them understand but he knew it would have been something his mother would have wanted.

When Harry arrived at the cemetery somewhere in Kent, there was little turnout for the ceremony and he saw how, what must be muggles, seemed to keep a great distance from the site, as if something was causing them to avoid it. 'Must be a charm.' Harry thought to himself. Having dressed in a suit for the occasion instead of robes for the fear of drawing unwanted attention to the proceedings, Harry felt out of place as he walked up the grave and tried to organise his thoughts. How do you say goodbye to someone you've hated for seven years only to find out he's been risking his life all along for you, someone who put their love of your mother over the constant reminder of someone that enjoyed torturing them? The mourners were leaving as he drew closer and he removed what he had brought from his pocket, a bezoar. Harry thought it fitting, since it was this that Snape's potions book had told him to use last year and that had saved his best friend. He owed a lot to someone he had once considered as bad as Voldemort. The grave was empty now and as he knelt by the freshly turned earth, he let his tears fall. Thoughts whirled through his mind, half memories and realisations. His mother, young at Hogwarts, telling Snape she didn't like his friends. The thought that this man would always know more of his mother than he ever would. The fact that he had risked so much, without saying anything to Harry. It was too much to take. Harry managed to place the bezoar in front of the headstone before curling up on himself and giving into his emotions.

Harry didn't know how long he'd been there, when he felt arms around his shoulders and a reassuring voice in his ear. It was Ginny. Harry let himself fall into those welcoming arms and let someone else support him, at least for a little while. Harry finally stirred when Ginny tried to move her legs. He wiped his eyes and sat on his haunches just looking at her.

"How did you know where I was?" He eventually asked

"Hermione told me you were here. She started to get worried when you hadn't come back. Are you feeling better?"

"I am, I think. Could you not…"

"Say anything?" Harry nodded "Of course I won't." Ginny smiled, sometimes he was still that same boy she fell in love with seven years ago.

"Come on" she said, getting up and holding out a hand, "Dad's cooking dinner, you don't want to miss that do you?" Harry grimaced

"Has your mum come down yet?"

"Not yet and I don't think she will till tomorrow, she just stays in Fred and George's room crying, surrounded by the shop stock and whispering how her son was a genius and why didn't she see it"

"It's hard for everyone. Are you sure you all want Hermione and me there at the minute? Wouldn't you prefer just your family?"

"And who do you think is in my family Harry? You and Hermione are as much apart of it as George and Ron." she said kissing him.

They made it back in time to find Mr Weasley attempting to cook like a muggle and heard Hermione shout at him, "Mr Weasley! You don't put the egg shell in as well. You've got to stir it, look like this. No! Don't put the glass bowl on the ring; put the batter in the tins from the oven."

Hermione's hair looked even frizzier than usual as she pushed it out of her face and grabbed the bowl from Mr Weasley. "Just get the tins from the oven could you?"

"What's for dinner?" Harry asked

"Well, it's meant to be a Sunday dinner with the works but Mr Weasley's having trouble with muggle cooking." replied Hermione

"OUCH! Merlin's beard!"

Everyone turned around in time to see Mr Weasley retreating from the oven with his hands almost glowing red. Hermione looked as if she was about to throw the pudding batter at him but instead put it down and went to find the burns paste. Ron trotted after Hermione and Harry and Ginny just sniggered, after 7 years of being friends, Ron seemed to think that now they were together, she would run away unless he watched he like a hawk.

Ginny led her father to the table as Harry took over the cooking. Quickly dispensing pudding batter into the tins and removing the chicken from the oven with gloves, magic would've been much easier but Harry thought Hermione would have preferred him to keep doing it without.

Once dinner was finished he decided to take a plate up to Mrs Weasley, she understandably hadn't been eating but he hoped that since it looked so delicious, it might just tempt her. He knocked on the door and waited for an answer but none came, so he quietly poked his head around the door. Mrs Weasley was curled up on Fred's bed asleep, surrounded by his clothes and products for the shop. He quietly put the plate down on a box, removed the things from around her and gently pulled the blanket across her but he managed to disturb her and she stirred.

"Harry, tell me it's a dream, tell me I'm going to wake up and all this is going to be a nightmare."

Harry's heart constricted at the pleading look in her eyes, this woman had been the only mother he ever knew and he longed to tell her that it wasn't true but instead he did something he never thought he'd do. He held her, like a parent would a child; He pulled her to his chest and let her cry. He didn't know what to tell her. You can't tell a woman, that's just lost her son that everything's going to be OK because it won't. He decided to tell her what she needed, if not wanted to hear instead.

"Mrs Weasley. I know it hurts and I can't even imagine how much but would Fred really want you like this? He's probably crowing that you've been calling him a genius but he'd be so sad to see you like this. Where's Mrs Weasley gone? The woman that would blast a Death-eater clear across the Great Hall for insulting her daughter? The woman that could probably send howlers to half of England without even pausing for breath? The woman that knits the most revolting jumpers I have ever seen and more importantly, the Molly that took a small orphan boy into the heart of her family without question and gave him a mother? You are the strongest person I know and you're the glue that holds this family together. You can't fall apart when your family needs you the most because it's falling apart without you."

"But I can't face it. Not without Fred. Life won't be the same. If I stay up here I can pretend he's just downstairs, causing trouble with his brother."

"You can't, you know that you can't. It'll never be the same, that's true but the sooner you go downstairs and face it, the sooner each day will get that little less unbearable. If you stay up here, it never will. So what do you say, are you going to stay up here or are you coming downstairs with me to have some dinner and watch your husband try to wash up?"

Harry felt Mrs Weasley shift slightly and took this as affirmation she was ready so he helped her up and took her hand. As they descended the stairs Harry noted the surprised looks on everyone's faces that was quickly hidden. Mrs Weasley however only seemed to notice the disaster area that was once a kitchen, she swiftly took note of the pans piled next to the sink and Mr Weasley sat at the table being administered another layer of burns paste to his hands by Hermione, before she became all business. Taking her wand out of her robes she gave it a wave and the sink started filling with hot water, then with a second, Mr Weasley got a sound clout around the ear before she told Hermione that he was applying the paste wrong and took over. Harry smiled at the expression on everyone's face. He understood it was easier to work through the grief, than accept it but it was much healthier than staying in that room for the rest of her life so he didn't try and stop her, not that he could've anyway. He just watched as she turned back into the woman he'd known half his life.

By the morning of the funeral owls had been sent to the Order and the rest of the Weasley family had been told. George, Percy, Bill and Charlie had arrived early that morning and there were mourners arriving by the minute. The funeral was to take place on the hill behind the house but Hermione had told everyone to come to the house beforehand and it was bursting at the seams. It seemed everyone that had ever come into contact with Fred were there. As well as family and members of the Order, there were also the D.A, Half the students from Hogwarts, People from Hogsmede and Diagon Alley, not to mention Hagrid, who took up much of the kitchen by himself. The house became so full that Hermione had to conjure a large marquee in the garden. She wanted to everyone there so words could be said at the house, not on a windswept hill but Mrs Weasley soon realised that this wouldn't be possible so she announced that everyone was to prepare to leave. The Weasley men and Harry were to act as Pallbearers and as the house cleared to let them pass, they made their way towards the backdoor and up the hill. Halfway up Harry felt the coffin dip to the left. He looked to Ron who barely seemed to be able to stand as the week's worth of grief seemed to catch him at once. He indicated to Ron that he could manage should he need to stop but Ron took a deep breath and stood proud. Harry understood. This was Ron's brother, he would see it through. They reached the hill's summit and placed Fred on a stand next to an open grave. As they took their places with the rest of the family, Mrs Weasley took hers beside the headstone and prepared to address the congregation, she spoke with a quiet but clear voice that could be heard over even the sweeping wind.

"Thank you for coming today, to a day that is every mother's hope will never come. We're here to lay to rest Arthur's and my son, Fred. A boy who spent most of his life in trouble rather than out of it and the cause of many a headache. He was a kind soul that would never willingly endanger someone's safety and always looked out for his friends. He would have loved to see you all here and I know he would have had a smart alec comment about it. I would like to invite anyone who has anything to say to come up."

This was followed by Ms McGonagall who told tale of his time at Hogwarts and others who had once called him a friend. Once everyone had said their goodbyes, the coffin was slowly lowered into the grave and the earth was placed with care on top. With nothing else to say or do people started to gradually drift back to the house. George was last to leave, placing a Skiving Snackbox between the flowers placed at the grave.

Once everyone had arrived at the house and condolences had been given, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry retreated upstairs. As soon as they reached the landing they split in two. Hermione and Ron to Ron's bedroom and Harry and Ginny to Ginny's.

Harry was disturbed much later by a gentle tap at the door. He looked over quickly to see if Ginny had been disturbed but she was still in a tearful sleep, sniffing and mumbling incoherent things. He climbed out of the bed as gently as he could to answer the door and was surprised to find Elphias Doge stood on the landing looking uncomfortable.

"Harry, I'm sorry to disturb you but I wish to talk to you about a matter. I know your feelings on the Ministry but would you be willing to come to my office on Monday? You, Hermione and Ron of course. It is on a rather pressing matter."

"Certainly Sir, but what is this about?"

"That I can't tell you yet but please come. By the way, I've been promoted; I'm now head of the Auror Office."

**AN - Please review. It keeps me motivated to write and no flames, only constructive criticism will be tolerated**


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